Date of Award

2024

Degree Type

Restricted to Claremont Colleges Master's Thesis

Degree Name

Psychology, MA

Program

School of Social Science, Politics, and Evaluation

Advisor/Supervisor/Committee Chair

William D. Crano

Dissertation or Thesis Committee Member

Steffanie Guillermo

Terms of Use & License Information

Terms of Use for work posted in Scholarship@Claremont.

Rights Information

© 2024 Tiffany T Shao

Keywords

aversive racism, cognitive bias, decision-making, perceived threat, stereotypes and prejudice, use of force

Subject Categories

Criminology | Psychology | Social Psychology

Abstract

The present study examined racial bias in attitudes towards police officers’ decisions to use force in the context of aversive racism theory. Previous research on aversive racism has established that individuals often resort to racial stereotypes as heuristic devices to guide judgments under ambiguous situations (Dovidio & Gaertner, 2000). In particular, police officers often operate under ambiguous situations where quick assumptions about the situation must be made to protect themselves and innocent bystanders. Yet, there is evidence that an officer's decision to use force depends on the race of the suspect; Black individuals are often tainted by biases characterized by attributions of criminality or aggressiveness (Devine, 1989; Welch, 2007), which may result in more force against them compared to their White counterparts. Although race is known to influence use of force decisions, a lesser explored topic is the extent to which perceived threat moderates the relationship between race and use of force decisions. The current study employed a 2 (suspect race: White or Black) x 3 (officer force: soft empty hands, pain compliance, chemical spray) mixed factorial design with suspect race as a between-subjects variable and officer force as a within-subjects variable. Participants read a short vignette about a case of a traffic stop and answered a series of measures assessing their attitudes towards police use of force, as well as perceived threat of both the suspect and the officer. Findings suggest that there was no effect of suspect race on the justification of an officer’s decision to use force. However, there was an effect of perceived threat of the suspect on justification of officer force; this relationship was not moderated by the race of the suspect. There was also no effect of perceived threat of the officer on justification ratings; this did not depend on the race of the suspect.

ISBN

9798342762762

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